President Obama welcomes Galaxy to White House, wishes good luck to USA

By Avi Creditor

The president of the United States honored the Galaxy for winning their second straight MLS Cup and offered a word of support for the USA ahead of Tuesday's clash with Mexico.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. men's national team has the support of the the country's commander in chief.

President Barack Obama made sure to offer his support to the USA ahead of its World Cup qualifying match against rival Mexico Tuesday in his remarks while welcoming the LA Galaxy to the White House for winning their second straight MLS Cup.

At the conclusion of his comments, in which he honored both the Galaxy and the NHL's Stanley Cup-winning Los Angeles Kings, Obama made note of the absence of some of the Galaxy's starpower -- Omar Gonzalez and Robbie Keane were unable to attend as they represent the USA and Ireland, respectively -- and gave his best wishes to Jurgen Klinsmann's side.

"There are a couple of Galaxy players who couldn't be here because of World Cup qualifying, so I'll wish Team USA the very best of luck as they take on Mexico tonight," Obama said.

Landon Donovan was present for the Galaxy, making his first public appearance since a student forum at the University of Southern California a month ago. He presented Obama with a ball -- which the president took and set himself up for a header -- and a personalized jersey, though he was not made available to speak to media.

Donovan is expected to make his first comments since rejoining the team on Thursday, and even though he had not been with the Galaxy since the 2012 MLS Cup final prior to this week, he still was the center of Obama's complimentary remarks about the club's championship run.

"When it comes to to the Galaxy, a team with Landon Donovan on it is rarely the underdog, but when the Galaxy was here last year, their chances of repeating as champion weren't all that good," Obama said of the team that had stumbled to a 3-8-2 start to kick off 2012. "The injury bug plagued the team, it seemed like it might be a rebuilding year, but right after that visit they turned things around."

The Galaxy went on to finish the season on a 13-4-4 jaunt to make the playoffs, where they defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo en route to capturing the fourth MLS Cup in club history.